About this book

Although initially neglected in favor of more charismatic lemurs, the genus Eulemur has been the focus of a growing body of research in Madagascar over the last two decades. These studies have revealed striking variability in the behavioral ecology of this genus. The wide distribution of Eulemur species and the occupancy of essentially all forested habitats in Madagascar have been facilitated by inter- and intrapopulation differences in activity patterns, social organization, body size, and diet (cf. Sato et al., this issue). This adaptability, coupled with the recent evolutionary divergence within the genus, make the Eulemur group an ideal model to study ongoing adaptive radiation.

To bring these new findings together, a symposium was organized at the 25th Congress of the International Primatological Society in Hanoi in 2014, inviting researchers from Madagascar, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States to participate in the first forum dedicated to brown lemurs. This symposium was inspired by Tattersall and Sussman (1998), who first lamented a deficiency of scientific attention to this fascinating group. This lack of interest, driven by the relative inconspicuousness of the brown lemurs, suggested an analogy to the nondescript bird species often dismissed by ornithologists as “little brown jobs” (Tattersall and Sussman 1998). This special issue includes most of the contributions to the Hanoi symposium, with papers exploring links between variation in ecological, behavioral, and anatomical traits within the brown lemur radiation and in comparison with other lemur taxa. It is hoped that the research presented in this issue will contribute to the continued growth of scientific interest in these “little brown lemurs”.